West African Worlds by Cline-Cole Reginald;Robson Elsbeth;

Author:Cline-Cole, Reginald;Robson, Elsbeth;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 4415035
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

9.3 Co-operative peace brokerage in Guinea Bissau

The insurgency led by General Ansumana Mane against the authoritarian regime of President Bernado Nino Vieira was largely the product of the politics of underdevelopment in Guinea Bissau. The sacking of General Mane as head of the army by President Vieira following allegations that the former had sold arms to the Senegalese separatist movement in Casamance, led to armed revolt by soldiers loyal to Mane in June 1998. This led to intervention by neighbouring Senegal and Guinea, under the auspices of ECOWAS, in support of the beleaguered President Vieira. Senegal’s participation in this intervention was considered to be in its national interest, because of the impact of the Casamance separatist rebellion in southern Senegal.

In response to an appeal from President Vieira, an ECOWAS Committee of seven was formed to facilitate a negotiated settlement to the conflict. Furthermore, ECOMOG’s security mandate was expanded to include Guinea Bissau. A cease-fire, brokered jointly by ECOWAS and the Community of Lusophone Countries (CPLP), was signed in Praia, Cape Verde, by the two factions in August 1998; a peace accord was signed later that year, in November, in Abuja. Although a Senegalese-led Ecomog observer mission was entrusted with the responsibility for monitoring the cease-fire agreement, rebel soldiers eventually overthrew the Vieira government, and set up a government of national unity in 1999. The military returned to its barracks, after organising domestic elections, but staged another (this time bloodless) coup in September 2003, forcing the incumbent president to resign and replacing him with an interim government of national unity, pending new elections.

Ecowas diplomacy contributed to ending the fierce fighting in what was an internal conflict in Guinea Bissau and, through co-operation with the CPLP and the UN, contributed also to post-war peace-building and reconstruction.

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